A Conversation with Joy Lynn White (continued)

JLW: Bob Kirsch had suggested Kyle Lehning, because I was looking for somebody that would allow me to co-produce with them, because I was not going to be produced again.

PM: Right.

JLW: Never. I will never do that again. I am too hands-on. And I'm tired of not getting the credit for all the other records, on the stuff that I did in the past. And it was that way or no way with me.

PM: Right.

JLW: And Kyle was totally into the co-production thing. And he had a studio. And he wanted to do something that sounded completely different than what he's used to doing. I just liked him, and I felt right in my gut. I didn't with some of the other people. There had been quite a few people who'd been coming in and out of the picture to do this project with me. I was looking for something.

PM: Sure, just looking for the chemistry.

JLW: Yeah. Because I'd had some lousy experiences, as I mentioned. And so there was a fear of going through that again, because I almost didn't want to make another record after going through that, to be honest with you. I thought, "If this is the way it's going to be, [laughs] I don't want to make records anymore."

But it was not that way at all with Kyle. I had the best time. I have nothing bad to say about anything in the making of that record with him. He's a wonderful person, and just so good at what he does. He's open minded enough to let you do it your way. If you say, "I want to hear more this, I want to hear more that," his ego won't get in the way. And mine doesn't either, it never really has, unless I feel like, "No, I've got to have it like this, I just know that's not right." So we worked well together. That's probably why he's where he is today, too, though, because that's the way he is. He doesn't let his ego get in the way. He's great at what he does, but he doesn't claim to have all the answers to everything.

PM: That's an interesting thing--you are your own person, you're even very willful and outspoken. But on the other hand, as you infer, it's not an ego thing.

JLW: Yeah. And I don't know everything, either. So believe me, I learned a lot from Kyle. He had a lot of things his way, and I think he really enjoyed this, because he didn't have to do anything that he did. The record deal had gone away. So he continued to forge ahead and do it, and spend the money, just as he would if they would have given him the money, because he believed in the project.

PM: Right. So he financed it. He did it on his own resources.

JLW: And he also has released it now on his own because he was not happy with the other few labels that did come into play after that one had fallen apart. There have been other deals; with each one of them, we hemmed and hawed around, and decided that we weren't going to do that. Each one has fallen by the wayside. [laughs] He made the right decisions. And he's put together a high-quality team behind this record.

PM: I know. He seems to be getting behind it promotion-wise.

JLW: Oh, he is, 100 percent.

PM: And he got a good distribution deal.

JLW: I mean, this is so much better than The Lucky Few deal was. But at the time, I was a lot younger, and I was just coming off the Columbia Record thing. And that's a huge disappointment, to be dropped by anybody--even though it was sort of a relief to me. I just didn't want to be in that world. It's not for me.

PM: And I'm told that on its third week, One More Time is already at #21 on the Americana Chart.

JLW: Yeah, it'll probably start slowing down now, because there's a lot of people now who want to get on that chart. It used to be that nobody really cared about that chart. [Actually, at this writing, One More Time is at #11 and still climbing.]

PM: But now there are a lot of really great names on that chart.

JLW: Yeah. I feel very fortunate to have a charted record with people like Neil Young and Bonnie Raitt.

PM: And it takes a lot of spins, so you must be getting a lot of airplay out there in that format.

JLW: I had a friend call me from Texas today, Austin Cunningham. You probably know him.

PM: Sure.

JLW: And he said he heard me on the big radio station there. He said, "Joy, I just heard your new record on"--I don't remember the station's name. But that's a neat thing.

[We talked about Austin Cunningham for a bit, including how he's headed back to TX after many years in town.]

JLW: And a lot of the people that I wrote with on this record don't live here anymore, either. It's a hard town, now, because it really has turned into the worst possible thing that could happen. [laughs] It really is based on what people look like now. It really is. And it really doesn't matter if somebody can sing all that good. They're going to fix it all, anyway.

PM: They're not only going to fix it in the studio, they're going to fix it live.  continue

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